Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban went on 103.3 ESPN Radio Tuesday to talk Mavs. Here are so highlights:

On why he thinks Dirk is not on the decline:

“You just have to watch him. I can hypothesize all I want, and it doesn’t really matter. The talk doesn’t matter. But you just got to see him, and I think what makes Dirk a little bit different is a couple things. One, he doesn’t play on athleticism. He’s not jumping over people. He’s not blazing by people. He’s technique, and he’s always been about technique, so that’s important. And the second part is discipline. The minute he starts playing, Dirk stops drinking. There’s not one little beer to go with his bratwurst or his spaghetti or whatever he’s eating over the summer. He’s disciplined. The rookies bring fried chicken onto the plane. You’re not going to see Dirk go anywhere near it. The level of discipline he has his unique, and it’s just about sports. Any professional, there aren’t that many, who take it to the extreme that the does.

On what fans can expect from the Mavs this year:

“I think they’re going to be reminded of the Mavs from 2011, from 2006 and ’07. We move the ball. There’s that beauty of the ball going around the perimeter, to move faster than the defense, and hit the guy with a wide-open shot. They’re going to love that. If you watched the game last night, and you saw Samuel Dalembert blocking shots. Look, he’s not as good a rebounder as Dwight, but he went, what, 13 and 7 in 25 minutes? And Dwight had 15 and 17, but Sam battles and he’ll defend, and he’ll work hard, and he’ll run, and I think people are going to be so pleasantly surprised given our history of centers minus one year.

On the negative perception on the Mavs:

“If those people really were any good at what they do, they’d be in Vegas. They wouldn’t be writing about it. I don’t see a whole lot of creed into what they say. I know I say it every year, so I’m a 14 year broken record, but I like our team. If we stay healthy, I think Dirk has got a lot to prove, and he’s working hard at it. I think Trix and Vince have come back ready to play. What I can tell everybody is we’ve got a new spirit, a new energy where we’ve got everybody really focused in.

Something that I haven’t said publicly, I remember last year when we went to Europe, and I was kind of excited like I normally am, and we had gotten Darren [Collison], and we had gotten Kaman, and Elton Brand, and O.J., and I thought we kind of were fortunate to get the guys we did, and Dirk came up to me and said, ‘We can’t pass, and we can’t shoot. Our guards aren't there.' This is the preseason, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ and he’s like, ‘Sorry, bro.’ And Dirk is kind of a Debbie-downer. He and J-Kidd were always that way where it was always the worst ever, and then he digs in and he’s a warrior, but that was the first time I’d ever really heard him say anything that negative, and he was right. This year, you talk to Dirk, and he just smiles and shakes his head. And when you get that out of Dirk, that shows that I think he’s fired up, he’s ready. I say the same thing to Trix. I’m like, “Trix, what do you think of this year compared to last?’ Because players sometimes have different perspective than management, and he’s like, ‘Yo, yo, this could be it.’ Our guys really have a super positive attitude.

Now obviously, we’ve got to stay healthy. Obviously, Monta and Sam, our new guys, have to continue to stay dialed in, but when was the last time we had a guy that could get to the basket and dish like Monta? ... If you look at J-Kidd, it’s not like he was a high-percentage shooter, I mean, he improved from three … I’m not comparing Monta and J-Kidd, but they both had their own way of impacting it. But even if you go back to Stack, Stack was only a 40 percent shooter, and he came in and had a big impact, so there’s different ways for players to impact the game, and Monta impacts in a lot of different ways. Jose impacts; he’s a phenomenal shooter. We saw a lot of that last night. Vince is still Vince despite what everyone says. Shawn will be better this year than last year. Last year, he’d cut to the basket wide open, and we couldn’t get it to him. This year, we’re going to get him the ball. We’re going to move the ball, and I also think it helps Dirk, because he doesn’t have to do as much.

I’m excited. I’m really fired up, and actually, I think Sam is the key to our game more than anything else. One of the things about Tyson when he was here was that he’d only average 28 minutes a game because of foul trouble. It was like 3.3 fouls and 28 minutes a game, and sometimes he’d get into early foul trouble, and we had Haywood to back him up. Our backup center isn’t as strong this year as it was last year. B-Wright is more of a forward playing center than a true center, and so Sam’s staying on the court and staying healthy and being aggressive and not being afraid of fouls and not getting fouls I think will really be one of the indicators of how we go.

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